Sayaka Torra, who competed at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was among the participants in the SP1 course, as was Annie Shiraishi-Cang, an alternate with the US team at Beijing.

The course was born off the back of the launch of a P3 programme to teach police non-lethal judo techniques, with a version suitable for civilians created by Taybren Lee, a member of the USA Judo P3 task force.

"The course teaches how to protect yourself, safety awareness and, overall, how to teach it," Lee said.

"This will help grow judo because most people don’t come into judo to become an Olympian.

"Most people come for exercise and some form of self-defence and that’s what SP1 provides.

"It teaches people who already know judo how to do the self-defence part which is not often taught."

Lee said he strongly believes self-protection training will help grow the sport, teach self-defence techniques and introduce the sport to a new pool of potential athletes.

"The problem for judoka is that, to us, the big throws are cool, but, to the average person, that’s scary," said Lee.

"So our goal is to show judoka how to teach more than just the sport. Judo’s a curriculum.

"It’s supposed to be for the betterment of mankind and society, but we’re not doing that if we’re only teaching the sport.

"Through SP1, we can broaden what judo is and reeducate the average judoka that it’s more than just a National Championship.

"This is going to help grow the sport because now other people can find a place in the sport."